CUT THE CLUTTER - #WRITEAPAGEADAY #BLOGCHATTER
If there is a phrase I have
heard my entire life, it is “Cut the clutter!” We Army people find this
extremely tough, the reason being that wherever we are posted, we tend to pick
up artifacts just so that we can keep snapshots of the place in our minds.
As an Army brat, and later
as an Army wife, I collected reams and reams of memories, being a writer. So,
apart from my scrap books and my newspaper cuttings, along with greeting cards presented
with love by my students and letters from loved ones, I already had a library
of books which were worth more to me than all the clothes in my wardrobe.
Another wonderful saying
that rings in my ears… “Collect moments, not things.” Easier said than done!
I can trace our journey from
place to place when I cast a glance over the things we possess – crockery from
Morvi in Gujarat, small carpets from Deolali from a certain gentleman who
stocked items specially for Army folks, mirrorwork cushions from Bhuj, a dinner
set from Baroda, chinar earrings and lacquer work from Kashmir, a Buddha figurine
from Tenga, Arunachal Pradesh, bedspreads from Rajasthan and finally a beautiful
sun shaped mirror from an exhibition in Chennai. The list could go on.
At every station, we would stow
away things in boxes depending on the size of our houses. The boxes themselves
would miraculously turn into seats and diwans, covered with the aforementioned
Rajasthani bedspreads.
When it came to retirement,
we found that one flat could not encompass all our belongings. Though my heart
broke many a time, we gave away boxes of things, and the boxes themselves,
especially since we realised that this was our final home. No more would we be
shifting our entire luggage anymore. No sooner had we come to this conclusion
that we found ourselves moving house once again. One last time!
My husband has a theory.
When one thing comes into the house, another thing must be sent out. Sentiment
does not come into it, he argues. Unfortunately, his magpie of a wife, and her
sister, do not agree. Who knows when a certain thing will be of some use? Even
after twenty-five years? Given that logic, we have a wooden table at home that
is older than my husband, and it is being used extensively. So, you never do know,
do you?
So many friends have turned
to minimalism. “It is such a relief to give things away to people who need
them!” they wax eloquent as they meditate in rooms that have suddenly grown in
size because they have cut the clutter. On the other side, I peer into the life
of those lucky people who have received the same things and find husbands
groaning as they find their rooms shrinking only because they have not been
able to say NO.
Once again, I turn to Marie
Kondo for inspiration.
She talks of downsizing
everything from clothes to kitchen items. However, she has an immensely large
hearted approach to giving things away. She instructs her followers to hold
every article to their heart and breathe a prayer of thankfulness to it for
having served them so faithfully. I do imagine holding a cast iron pot close to
me and intoning, “Thank you, dear pot, for the many years you have given me and
my family happiness and fulfilment!” Of course, I would need to do it at a
solitary moment lest I be thought a trifle weird.
At the moment I am writing
this, my sister has just sent me a beautiful set of purple cookware… mera wala
purple, as I always say, and I am understandably thrilled. In the background, I
hear my better half’s voice say, “Ok, now you need to throw away three similar
pieces from your kitchen!”
The battle is set to commence, all over again.
Postscript: This post is dedicated to my better half!
660 words
It's hard to discard certain possessions. But i find doing it for reasons of space.
ReplyDeleteI too try desperately! Hardly ever works! :)
ReplyDelete